Deus Ex Machina and the Oath
by imissedyourpatronage
Summary: Batman AU (a collaboration with reverse-swing). Gotham is rotten, its core is infected. But out of the shadows, battling its demise, comes a masked vigilante. But when she crosses paths with the most unlikely person, her mission becomes a little more complicated than she had bargained for.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N** \- Hey all. What follows is Vauseman Batman AU, a collaboration co written by myself and reverse-swing (if you have not yet read all of her other stories you need to do so). It's been awhile since I've posted (or even written) anything, and I've kind of been wanting to get back into it. reverse-swing sort of kicked my ass and told me to _do_ something as opposed to just talking about doing something, and then further suggested we do something together, and so here we are... And here's our first chapter. Enjoy!

...

Alex Vause remembers a time, a mere six months ago in fact, when she would've cased a penthouse by crouching across the street in the freezing cold and looking through the windows with binoculars. However, now that she has a degree of success under her belt and a little collateral to her name, she's been able to afford a much less dreary intelligence gathering method.

Alex barely remembers the hostess's name (Mary? Mandy?) only knows that the Society Page said something about her going to build houses in South America for a few weeks, thus leaving her extensive collection of jewelry and art, as well as the contents of her safe, unguarded. A perfect mark for the enterprising cat burglar.

She's here to get the layout of the place, entrances, safes, exits... she knows from the blueprints where they are, but seeing it up close is different, and vital to the success of a job. She's been at it for about an hour, snapping pictures with her cell phone while pretending to text, when she finally decides she's had enough.

As amusing as she finds it to rob these people blind, it's exhausting to have to walk amongst them, acting as though she doesn't want to punch them all in the face. She can only take so much. She's turning towards the door when it opens, and a fashionably late newcomer arrives.

Alex, still half the room away, glances up casually at the new person and stops in her tracks, almost dropping her wineglass.

Piper. Fucking. Chapman. In the goddamn flesh. She'd spent the month since the blonde came back to town trying to avoid even reading her name in the paper... and now here she was, and seeing her felt like someone had just run a freight train straight through her chest.

She takes a step back towards the edge of the room, not taking her eyes off the blonde, who seems oblivious to her presence. The hollow feeling seems to expand with every passing moment.

And there's anger at herself for even giving a shit, anger that is only exacerbated as she stands there and watches Piper act exactly like one of these other trust fund babies; laughing too loudly at horrible jokes, drinking too much of the champagne, recounting all the notches on her bedpost no doubt, grinning as she describes another trashed hotel room.

This Piper bears no resemblance at all to the damaged, angry, beautiful, 13 year old she had stumbled across all those years ago. And as she watches, Alex begins to realize that all the time away has simply polished Piper's edges, made her into a Stepford Wife... (she even has the requisite bland, preppy blonde jocks hovering around her and bringing drinks)

Eventually, Alex can't stand it anymore. She maneuvers herself back toward the penthouse door and slips out quietly, unnoticed by any of the crowd.

…

The party is the fourth one Piper Chapman is attending that week (some going away soiree for one of her former friends... Muffy or Missy or something). She's been to at least five times that many since she returned to Gotham a month ago. She's found that they're useful in cultivating (or rather _enhancing_ ) the image that she wants for herself, carefully shaping the way she wants people to see her.

There are two versions of her and she's not sure what it says about her that she slides between them so easily. Had she grown up her father's daughter, she might have been blinded by privilege and her parents' expectations, too complacent in her comfort to see what people truly are.

As it is, however, she knows exactly what people are capable of doing to one another. And more importantly she knows that no one is ever what they seem.

She stands in the center of a group of people, smiles and nods and flirts. She talks about the parties she's attended, the people she needs to reacquaint herself with, what she's been doing for the past seven years. But even as she does so, part of her mind is distracted by the cave beneath the mansion, occupied with whether or not Claudette has gotten the gas cartridges refilled, how much pressure she can put down on the ankle Polly taped last week (as she'd expressed, once again, her doubts about what they were doing).

And it's at times like _this_ that she realizes just how out of place amongst these people she is, how this isn't _her_ anymore. These people won't understand what she's trying to accomplish, couldn't even begin to comprehend the reality of the streets, the corruption that is rife, infecting the city, top to bottom (and if they do, they're more likely to be concerned with profiting from it).

It isn't just that she's been gone for seven years (although in that time she's trained her body and mind in ways no one in this room could imagine). This change started years before that, started the second the mugger stepped out in front of her father. Then followed three hard years in Gotham and some time abroad. And now she wasn't anything they would've recognized... Although she recognizes what _they_ are. Even standing here looking around she can see the signs; affairs, dirty deals; illegal highs, alcoholism, lying, concealing...

As midnight approaches, she starts to make her excuses. Drank too much last night. Feeling a little under the weather. Going to call it night...

 _Time to get to work._ _  
_  
And this woman they think they know, the tall blonde with the flashing blue eyes whose biggest issue was her outfit.

 _God forbid it should clash with anyone's during fashion week_

Doesn't actually exist. Any possibility Piper Chapman might have had of becoming that person had disappeared when she'd vowed on her brothers grave to avenge his death.

…

Alex is still mulling over her brush with Piper Chapman the next night, after a day of fitful, broken sleep. She leans against her kitchen counter at 11:30pm, downing a bowl of some horrid children's cereal (the only food product Nicky can be bothered to purchase) scowling at the newspaper spread out in front of her. Nicky herself is on the couch in a battered t-shirt and sweatpants, mending Alex's outfit.

"VAUSE!"

The brunette looks up from the paper and settles her gaze on her friend, whose shrewd brown eyes are boring into hers. She realizes Nicky has been trying to speak to her for a while now

"Oh. Sorry, Nick. What's up?"

"Well I was gonna ask you how you managed to fuck this thing up every goddamn night," she holds up the leather, "but now I'm curious why you're glaring at that paper like it owes you money."

Alex sighs. Nicky hasn't seen her since she left for the party last night, and so has no idea about what happened. Alex really (fucking _REALLY_ ) doesn't want to talk about it, but Nicky is one of the few people she's told about what happened all those years back, though she never named names. Besides, she knows her friend is as persistent as fuck. If she doesn't tell her now, she'll never hear the end of it.

"You remember that girl?"

"'That girl'?" Nicky frowns, trying to figure it out. The initial confusion is understandable. Alex has had a lot of girls. It takes a long moment, but then Nicky snaps her fingers, "Oh, you mean the one who abandoned you when your mom was sick and broke your heart..."

Alex glares. Nicky isn't renowned for her tact. "Yeah her," she says, still glaring, "Well she's been back in town for about a month and I've been avoiding anything to do with her... but last night I actually saw her."

"Fuck."

"So I slept like shit, and then I get up and see this..." Alex holds up the society section, the one with the large picture of Piper fucking Chapman getting out of a car on her way to last night's party.

"You were in love with _Piper Chapman_?"

"Yeah."

"The girl who spent the past few years partying her way across Europe, fast cars, loose men and all that...? Didn't know you went for _that_ type."

"That's not how she was when I knew her," Alex says, realizing she sounds angrier than she ought to. Really, Piper was a long time ago. It had been an interesting few years that had taught her some harsh but ultimately useful lessons. She shouldn't be upset about it. People changed. People were two-faced assholes who lived to fuck one another over. It was the way of the world. The fact that Piper was proving herself to be just like all the other trust fund gang, shouldn't be bothering her now.

Nicky shakes her head ruefully, "Straight girls..."

And all Alex can offer is a grunt at Nicky's familiar refrain. She shakes her own head once trying to clear it and flips away from the offending pages. "You almost done?"

Nicky nods, "Yeah yeah. You're a fuckin' slave driver treatin' me like I have nothing better to do"

"You don't have anything better to do," Alex says, putting her cereal bowl in the sink and walking over to the couch, "at least until Red forgives you. Again. And you're staying here rent-free. Least you can do is a little tedious busywork..."

"You're lucky I sort of half paid attention to my sewing tutor, " Nicky huffs a long suffering sigh and hands the suit to Alex. "Here ya go. Your sexy pajamas."

Alex rolls her eyes and grabs the suit, giving it a cursory inspection before she heads back to the bedroom to change

She always looks forward to her nights out, running the rooftops, free to do whatever she pleases. Even on nights she doesn't find a sucker to relieve of shiny objects, it's an amazing feeling. But tonight it'll serve another purpose.

It took Alex three years and a foolhardy amount of illegal substances to get over Piper Chapman. Alex refuses to let her rule her life again.

She'd gone to the party last night as part of a job, and she wasn't going to let three days of hard work go to waste because she was getting all fucking mopey. And why should she be upset? Piper has simply proven herself to be exactly the way Alex had initially thought.

As Fahri always said, some people were better in the abstract.

The owners of the penthouse must have had the cleaners in, because the place is pristine as she slips in. She goes straight to the safe after disabling the security and has just opened it when she catches movement out of the corner of her eye.

Her instincts kick in instantly and she twists her body to the left. She's fast, but the blow still manages to connect. Even though it just grazes her temple instead of slamming straight into her jaw, it sends her reeling.

Before she can recover entirely, whoever just threw the punch is sweeping her legs out from underneath her. She hits the ground hard and just manages to roll out of the way of a vicious elbow smash.

She's able to turn the roll into a crouch (although she's not sure how... the glancing blow from before rang her bell). She tries to get a bearing on her opponent and almost starts laughing when she realizes it's a woman, dressed head to toe in black, a large yellow bat on her chest, a cascade of black hair trailing from her cowl as she comes at Alex again

Fucking Batwoman?

She knew enough to know the Bat was for real, not some ghost story. She's been causing havoc in Kubra's territory for a month now, which was fine by Alex. But she didn't figure stopping a little minor white collar B and E would be the vigilante's deal, especially when she could be out disrupting multimillion-dollar drug deals.

Alex isn't given time to contemplate it further as she continues to defend herself against the other woman's relentless flurry of blows.

As the fight ranges through the apartment and Alex starts wondering how long it'll take the cops to get here, she can't help but admire her opponent's skill. The woman is fast and has better training. Alex however, is a dirtier fighter and obviously much more used to scrapping, using everything she can lay hands on to try to get an opening large enough. All she needs is to stun the Bat long enough to get past her...

There are sirens in the distance by the time the Bat's superior fighting skills catch up with Alex. She manages to get her pinned up against a bookcase, her forearm pressed hard against Alex's throat

The fight has taken a lot out of her. If this has happened near the beginning she might've been able to break the hold, but she's tired and has taken more than a few hits. And the Bat is applying so much pressure she's having a hard time breathing

At some point she's also managed to lose her goggles, and she's in no position to grab her backups so all she can see is a bat eared blur.

She's gasping for air and can hear the Bat doing the same.

And then suddenly the pressure on her throat lifts just slightly and she hears a voice, full of stunned surprise, "Alex?"

Fucking hell. That voice. She can't stop herself blurting, "Piper?!" even though it comes out as half a wheeze as gets her breath back.

What the everloving fuck... _Piper is the goddamn Bat?_ Piper just fought her like a fucking demon for the past ten minutes...?

Suddenly she realizes that the Bat (Piper?!) has relaxed her grip entirely as she continues to stare. Alex has a million questions (although almost as soon as she said her name, she knows with absolute certainty that she's right, that this is Piper, despite the black hair that's almost certainly some sort of disguise) but the sirens are much closer now and she has no interest in going back to jail.

She can assuage her curiosity later. For now she takes advantage of Piper's shock and brings her knee up hard, catching he in the solar plexus. The blonde is obviously wearing some sort of body armor but it can't stop the blow from being a shock and she goes stumbling back just far enough that Alex can elbow her in the head (maybe the first solid blow she's landed) and dash hard for the sliding glass door she came in.

She's managed to get her backup goggles out of her belt by that time and dives headlong off the penthouse balcony, not taking the time to consider the physics of the situation as much as she might normally, given she has no idea how long it'll take the Bat to recover. Her primary goal is to get outside...

The rain has intensified since she went to the penthouse and it pelts her face, cold and relentless, as she free falls from forty stories up. Half blindly she thrusts her arm toward the building opposite and hits the trigger on her grapple, hoping it won't tear her arm out of its socket.

It sure as shit doesn't feel good, but as she grimaces at the pain, she can at least be grateful that she's not currently sidewalk art. She reels herself up to the roof, grimacing every time her shoulder is jarred.

By the time she has her feet under her again she feels like she wants to throw up or pass out, but she shakes it off. She has to get the fuck out of here...

Scowling at the throbbing in her shoulder, she starts to run for the opposite edge of the roof... but before she can get three steps, the Bat (PIPER?!) comes out of nowhere, slamming into her and knocking her off her feet. Alex looks up at her and frowns...

"Well, fuck..."

…

 _It's well past midnight as she stands shivering in the phone booth, hurriedly tapping the memorized phone number for Friendly's into the keypad. Sue answers. She tells her Diane is out back, sorting the trash, does she want to leave a message? Alex pauses, deciding on a suitable excuse, "Can you tell her I'm at Nicky's? We sorta lost track of time watching a movie and her mom said it's ok for me to stay over"._

" _Mm hmm" she replies. Alex is sure she's heard it all before from her own kids. "I'll let her know". Alex hangs up before she's required to divulge anything more incriminating._

 _The truth is she's not staying at Nicky's, she never is when she's up all night; she prefers to prowl the city, alone. Hiding amongst the shadows, observing the underbelly of Gotham as they come out to play and in a strange sort of way, it's_ _ **here**_ _that she feels she belongs the most._

 _It had started back when she needed to earn some "loose change" as Fahri had put it. Innocuous jobs, the odd delivery here and there, a glorified runner of sorts. He'd caught her and Nicky trying to hustle some guys over a game of pool in some dive bar one night, in a part of town that her mother wouldn't have approved of. But this was Nicky's patch and she never felt unsafe…well not unsafe enough to keep away in any case._

 _He'd been watching them for awhile, long enough at least for Alex to begin getting twitchy, long enough for her to nudge Nicky and ask her what the fuck he was doing, if he was the Feds. Nicky had simply chuckled, "believe me Vause, the Feds, the ones that aren't dirty as fuck anyway, have got much bigger fish to fry, cause in case you haven't noticed, Gotham is sick, it's heart is as black as coal and there's no antidote in sight, so a couple of under-aged drinkers? They won't even be on the radar"._

 _It was hard to argue with this, but the man still unnerved her, until eventually, having beaten their two burly opponents three times in a row (double or nothing gentlemen, how's about it?) the men had begun to get a little antsy. "Fair's fair" Nicky had tried to reason as she attempted to snatch up the dollar bills they had placed on the table (to the victor the spoils, she'd grinned, before the smaller of the two men had slammed his hand down,_ _ **hard**_ _,_ _on the notes). Alex's eyes had flicked to Nicky's, as her friends usual composure threatened to slip._

 _She remembers a vague sort of scuffle, the glint of something silvery and dangerous in the dirty light cast by the overhead lamps and before she knows what she's doing, she's slamming a pool cue over the man's head. The groan is guttural, as he lurches forward, hands grappling for traction, but instead finding nothing but empty space. And the next thing she remembers, she and Nicky have burst through the exit door, bolting down the street, not stopping until they're chests feel tight and they're gasping for more oxygen than their lungs can presently supply,_

" _Fuck me Vause," Nicky says, leaning in the doorway of a derelict 7-Eleven, when they feel like they're far enough away to be safe, "you could have told me you were gonna go all ghetto up in there..."_

" _You wanted to have a discussion about tactics? Or did you want me to save your fucking ass, cause from where I'm standing, you owe me…..you owe me fucking big," Alex snaps, waiting for the pain in her side to abate._

 _Nicky grins, her breathing now regulated, "Well, how's about this for a starter?" she says, pulling out a fistful of dollar bills from the pocket of her jeans._

 _And Alex can't quite hide her delight, "You managed to grab the cash in the get away?"_

 _Nicky laughs, "Of course….if a job's worth doing…"_

…

 _She's looking for a leather jacket the next day, eager to spend her winnings before Diane finds the cash lying around. There's one she's had her eye on for a little while, black, a little battered, but the leather is buttery soft and as soon as she feels it between her fingertips, she knows she has to make it hers._

" _You've got good taste"_

 _She spins around and comes face to face with the man she'd mistaken for a Fed from the night before. Her mouth immediately feels dry. What if Nicky was wrong? But there's something about the sparkle to his eyes and the languid ease with which he's leaning against the clothes rail, that makes her think her friend was right._

" _Um..thanks" she replies, diverting her eyes back to the jacket in her hand._

" _I saw you last night…I was impressed…." he continues._

" _Impressed?"_

" _Yes," he laughs._

" _With?"_

" _With your quick thinking, your speed….your courage…."_

 _Alex shakes her head, "I just got lucky I guess."_

 _Lie._

 _She's been used to scrapping all her life. Being raised on state assistance meant she had to develop a thick skin, a quick fist and deft agility. These days (well the ones she could bother to make it to school at least) no one messed with her. No one interacted with her period in fact, but that suited her just fine. Alone was how she felt most comfortable... well, aside from some occasional time with Nichols that was._

 _He chuckles again, but this time more fondly, like a beloved uncle might. It irritates her slightly, because all she really wants to do is buy the jacket, get the fuck out of here and make her way to Red's to meet Nicky. But something is telling her he won't let her off that lightly. And she's not wrong._

 _He tells her his name is Fahri, offers her a job, says he could use more people like her. The money will be "enough" to begin with, with the potential for plenty more. Alex is damn sure that "enough" will be more than she's ever been used to in her whole life. He gives her an address downtown, tells her to meet him tomorrow at 10am "bring your friend too, if you like" he says, as he departs through the door, the bell reverberating around the store as he does so._

 _And so it begins._

…

 _That was over a year ago and now at fourteen, she feels like night is what she likes best, hidden under its veil as the city reveals its true self to her. But she's not dumb, she knows where to avoid and where she'll always be welcome. Where Red's territory begins and where Fahri's ends._

 _And never the twain shall meet._

 _Nichols had initially found it hilarious that they were effectively working for rival bosses, "It's like a modern day Romeo and Juliet," she'd laughed, "except bleaker and without the flowery words." Alex had rolled her eyes, but somehow, there developed an unspoken agreement between the pair of them, one that meant neither discussed their respective work and it had remained that way ever since._

…

 _The night is colder than Alex has envisaged and her thin rain jacket is affording little comfort as she strides towards Gotham library. These are her favorite nights, sneaking in after hours, no alarm to trouble her, after all, the criminals of Gotham are only concerned with things they can shift for cold hard cash and plenty of it._

 _And amongst the dusty confines, she can lose herself for a few hours, become submerged in the yellowing leaf of Tolstoy, be transported to the exotic lands of Kipling, be anywhere but_ _ **here.**_

 _She's almost reached the imposing gothic building when she hears a squabble across the street. She knows better than to get involved in someone else's business, in Gotham, you keep yourself to yourself and you stay alive. But she catches sight of one of the participants in the dim glow of a street lamp, a blonde girl, around her own age. Her eyes flick to the man with whom she's arguing, he's dressed in a suit trying to bat her away. "I said, no, I'm not buying you any cigarettes, now fuck off you little bitch," he spits. Alex stops in her tracks, she can feel herself bristle at his words and to her surprise the girl lunges straight for his throat, fingers clasped tightly around it._

" _Lemme fucking go you little whore" the man wheezes. He raises a hand, it connects roughly with the side of the girl's head, hard enough contact that it sends her spiraling backwards, so she lands on floor with a thud, sprawled on her back. And in spite of her better judgment, Alex finds herself jogging over to make sure she's ok._

 _By the time she reaches her, she's already back on her feet, running towards the man, whose back is now to her, making his way back down the street. She races past Alex and leaps onto to him, an enforced piggy back and although he struggles a little longer, the net result is the same, as the girl ends up back on the sidewalk in a crumpled heap._

 _The man spins round, fixes his gaze on Alex, "You know this little bitch?" he says, lips pulled into a grimace._

" _Um..."_

" _Because if she comes at me one time," he pulls his jacket back, reveals a holster and a gun. Alex swallows hard._

" _She won't" Alex replies hurriedly. The man shakes his head, mumbles another string of profanities and disappears down an alley._

 _Alex sighs deeply at the near miss, turns around to see if the girl is ok, but there's empty space where she was mere seconds ago, no doubt lost to the inky devil's hour shadows. She's almost given up, ready to retreat to the library, when her eye catches something shiny and plastic on the ground, where the blonde had been sprawled. She snatches up the item and flips it over in her fingers. Piper Chapman the fake ID reads (Alex has seen enough to spot them a mile away, even one this well made). She repeats the name, she likes the way it sounds, although she has no idea why._

 _And suddenly, she's too restless for the library._

 _..._

 **A/N-** Please fave/follow/review if you're so inclined...

Also, just wanted to say thanks to NightsLightss, with whom I discussed the Batman AU about a million years ago.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N** \- Hey everyone. Welcome back to the Batman AU collaboration written with reverse-swing. Sorry for the slight delay in getting this one out. Life is life and sometimes it goes and gets in the way of writing (inconsiderate of it, I know). Anyway, here's chapter 2. Enjoy! (this one is all flashback, thus the italics)

 _..._

 _On nights like this, Gotham is her balm. Soothing her from something she can't quite fathom, easing a raw pain that she doesn't remember being without. Because she can melt into shadows, embrace them like a second skin. And acid rain can cleanse her:_ _ **almost.**_

 _But it's all temporary._

 _And she's not even sure what she's running away from (or maybe towards?) only that most days, it sits heavy on her chest, slowly sucking the life out of her. But Fahri says she's different. He tells her to think big. And those brown eyes wouldn't lie (a voice in her head screams something else, but she's accustomed to dulling it down so it's nothing more than a gentle hum)._

" _You're going places Vause" he says one night, half chuckling, regarding her closely over the rim of a whisky tumbler. Alex doesn't meet his gaze. When his voice is honey sweet, like it is now, the edges of his words almost a blur, she knows he can be especially dangerous. So she lets the silence blanket them for awhile, bass from the bar above gently vibrating the ashtray on the desktop._

 _He lights a cigarette, offers her one. She shakes her head, for some reason the thought is making her feel a little nauseous, she needs some air and more than likely some food. Her last square meal feels as if it was days ago. So she makes her excuses to leave._

" _Wait" Fahri insists, sliding a desk drawer open. He retrieves a brown paper packet (fatter than last time) and tosses it at her. She catches it clumsily, almost allowing the contents to spill onto the floor and it's precious cargo, so she grabs at it hungrily._

" _Happy payday" he grins._

 _Her response is more of a grimace than a smile, because she knows this isn't kosher, nothing about it is. But what was school ever going to do for her anyway? Most days she can barely muster the energy to make it in and when she does, her mind is already wandering back to the cool night air of Gotham, the sidewalks glinting with a fresh rain. And the good folk of the neighboring town never seem to tire of telling her it's a depraved and rat infested kind of hell. But these streets are the thing that Alex likes best, because here, there is no pretense, just Gotham and guts and glory._

 _Somehow, everything is still up for grabs._

…

" _You like playing with fire huh, Stretch?" Nichols says, sliding a plate of Russian pastries in front of the brunette._

 _Alex takes another sip of the bitter black tea that Red insists is replenishing and shrugs._

" _Effusive. But you know, if Red sees you, she'll…."_

" _She'll what?" Alex says, pushing the plate away, vivid green eyes flashing with a reckless sort of bravado. She knows the rules, anyone that works for Fahri is not welcome in a Reznikov establishment. But tonight, Alex is feeling even less like she could give a fuck._

 _There's a guttural murmur of thunder, closely followed by a fractured snap of lightning, it briefly illuminates the murky bar area and for a second, Alex swears she's spotted something…_ _ **someone**_ _. She toys with the idea of investigating further, but suddenly a hand is clamped to her shoulder and from the expression on Nichols's face, she can guess who it is._

 _ **Red.**_

" _New perfume?" Alex says grinning, not bothering to turn around. "It's nice..." She makes an exaggerated sniffing sound, "kinda like care home chic"_

 _Nicky's hand flies to her own mouth, as if doing so will trap the laughter that's bubbling up from the pit of her belly, but it spills out all the same. The lines on Red's face harden, her grip on Alex's shoulder failing to loosen._

" _Witty, let's see how many wise cracks you can make once Vasily and his friends get hold of you..."_

 _Suddenly Nichols is silent, but Alex isn't in the mood to concede, not tonight._

" _Hm…maybe…just they seem a little preoccupied with other things." She nods towards Andrei, the biggest of Vasily's 'crew'. He's sat at the bar, busy staring at a replay of some hockey game on the TV behind the counter, only taking brief pauses to cram fistfuls of pirozhki into his mouth. "Quite the trained killer you got there," she continues._

 _Red's hand drops to her side, a deep sigh punctuating the end of Alex's sentence. "Just go home, Vause."_

 _Alex slides out of the booth, "Absolutely, ma'am". She finishes with a mock salute, as Nichols' eyes widen in disbelief._

 _Red however is unmoved, "Don't let me see you around here again or…"_

" _Pfft…whatever," Alex replies turning towards the exit._

" _You're not as invincible as you think," Red shouts after her._

 _Alex hopes that she's right._

…

 _She's four blocks towards nowhere, hand fixed around the wad of notes in her jacket pocket, but tonight even the comfort of that can't calm her, the cool droplets of rain ricocheting off her skin won't soothe her, so she drags herself into an alleyway, sodden and strangely breathless as she attempts to light a cigarette, the flare from the flame illuminating a figure crouched over on the floor._

 _The surprise is such that she drops her cigarette to the ground and a raspy "fuck" involuntarily escapes her lips before she's properly been able to evaluate the danger of the situation. So she recoils a little, right hand now firmly clenched into a fist and she can make out enough in the shadows to realize the figure is scrambling to its feet, a light groan announcing it's a woman. Alex's chest relaxes a little at the revelation, although this in itself shouldn't mean she's automatically safe, not in a place like Gotham. But it affords her a small amount of courage, now that she at least knows it's not Vasily or one of his goons._

" _You ok?" she offers, shakily, into the murkiness beyond, watching a cloud of mist form from her lips and then curl up and dissipate into the gloom of the night._

 _Silence._

 _She licks her lips, swallows hard, tries again. "You ok?"_

" _You got another cigarette?" the voice finally replies. There's something pure about it, almost melodic and Alex doesn't know why, but suddenly her heart is hammering._

" _Sure," she replies, hand scrabbling around in the inside pocket of her coat. She pulls out the pack of cigarettes as the woman shuffles her way towards the brunette. But every inch of Alex is still coiled a little tighter than it should be (the instinct of any child of Gotham) and it remains that way until the flame of her lighter reveals the identity of the stranger; Piper Chapman._

 _The blue of her eyes (crazy fucking blue, she'll later tell Nichols) fail to elicit any discernible warmth and she's standing, slightly hunched over, cradling her right hand. It takes a few seconds before Alex realizes it's bleeding, split at the knuckles, wounds pulsating with fury. "Shit," she murmurs, almost dropping the second cigarette of the night._

" _You're not very good at that are you?" Piper Chapman replies and Alex can hear the smile in her words, the slight quiver of a laugh, before she's even looked up to face her again. And suddenly her eyes are more inviting, familiar even._

" _Well?" she continues._

" _Well what?" Alex replies, still distracted by the easy way the blonde's words seemed to melt into a warm chuckle._

" _Well who's gonna win the next mayoral election?!"_

" _Huh?"_

" _Are you going to light this goddamn cigarette or not?" she says, still half smirking._

" _Oh shit, sure" Alex replies, hurriedly doing so._

 _She takes a couple of deep drags before handing the cigarette to Alex who does the same and they stand like that for a few moments, oblivious to the solid pitter- patter of the rain and the fact that the cold is gradually seeping through to their bones._

 _Piper flexes her hand, grimaces a little and tosses the cigarette butt behind her._

" _You should get that looked at," Alex says._

 _Piper doesn't reply._

" _It could get infected," she continues._

 _And the silence lingers on, but Alex doesn't want the night to end like this, doesn't want Piper to disappear into the darkness, maybe forever, who knows. So she pulls out the quart of Vodka she'd been saving to drink on a grassy bank, hidden away behind the parking lot of Wal-Mart. She holds it up like a trophy. "You game?" she asks, raising an eyebrow. She's met with a toothy grin._

 _So they half sprint, half walk to the spot where Alex has whiled away so many nights that she's lost count and position themselves at the best focal point they can find, one that affords them the best vista of the sprawling metropolis._

" _Wow," Piper murmurs, starting out at the city beyond, lights sparkling like jewels on the horizon. "It's sorta beautiful"_

" _Shame it's Gotham, huh?" Alex replies, before taking a long pull on the bottle and handing it to Piper, grateful that the rain has eased off. She notes that the girl's hand is still bleeding, but decides against pressing the matter again, for now at least._

" _You come here a lot?" Piper replies. She takes a deep sip of the liquor, her face scrunching up in disgust. Alex guesses she's used to stealing higher end hooch, surreptitiously of course, from her parents' liquor cabinet. But her expression lends her an innocence that makes her look her age. It's nice in a strange sort of way, but Alex isn't sure why._

" _Now and then"_

" _By yourself?"_

" _Mainly, yeah"_

 _Piper takes another pull on the vodka before handing it back._

" _So you gonna tell me how you did that?" Alex says, nodding towards the blonde's injury._

" _No….maybe...depends how drunk you can get me..." And there's that laugh again, and that warm fluttering in the pit of Alex's stomach. She ignores it for now._

" _What makes you think I'm trying to get you drunk?"_

" _I didn't say you were_ _ **trying."**_

 _And they remain that way for a little while, holding each others' gaze, the distant sirens of Gotham giving way to something else, until finally Piper concedes that her hand_ _ **is**_ _feeling pretty damn painful._

" _We'd better get the hospital to check it out," Alex says, scrambling up to her feet and running a hand over the now damp seat of her jeans._

" _No!" Piper replies, snapping._

 _Alex's head jerks back at the fervency of her reaction._

" _I'm sorry…it's just that my…um…my aunt is an ER nurse at Gotham Hospital Center and I don't want her to worry…"_

" _Okay," Alex says flatly. It's obviously a lie, but she figures the reason for it must be decent, so she doesn't quiz Piper any further._

" _I'll just go home, my parents sleep like the dead, so I can raid the first aid box, it'll be fine," but Alex doesn't look convinced._

" _Listen, my house is just a few blocks away and Diane...my mom, she keeps the first aid cabinet pretty well stocked, plenty of burns and scrapes working at a diner, I can patch you up and send you on your way if you like? She's staying at a friends tonight." She gently lifts Piper's damaged hand, the blood around the main wounds is beginning to congeal into a sticky mess. "It probably looks worse than it is anyway."_

 _It's only a couple of seconds before Piper agrees. Her gut is telling her that Alex Vause is good people. And good people are hard to come by in this place._

 _They're half way down the bank before Piper speaks again. "I punched a wall," she says, "that's how I did it"._

 _Alex just nods in response. She doesn't know what has driven Piper to hurt herself in such a way, but more importantly than that she realizes, she doesn't_ _ **need**_ _to._

…

" _You're not so bad at this" Piper says examining her bandaged hand, perched on the edge of the couch in Alex's modest apartment. She doesn't allow her eyes to linger on the peeling wallpaper, or the damp patch in the corner of the ceiling, casually ignores the faint smell of blocked drainpipes that occasionally wafts through the open living room window. Because what does any of that matter anyway? Years living in Gotham have taught her that, if nothing else._

" _One of my many talents, kid," Alex says handing her a strip of painkillers. "Pop a couple of these, should help ease the suffering, it's the good shit, prescription stuff my mom had when she slipped a disc in her back."_

 _Piper does as she's told, washing them down with a generous gulp of yet more booze._

" _You want me to walk you back home?" Alex offers, noting that it's almost 1am._

 _But Piper shakes her head, nestling down into the couch a little further, "Not for a few minutes okay?"_

" _Okay," Alex replies._

 _So they watch "Some like it Hot" and laugh louder than is strictly necessary, even at the bits that Alex doesn't usually find that funny, until eventually, they both drift into something akin to slumber. And for the first time in a long while, Alex Vause falls asleep with a smile on her lips and a strange sort of warmth in her chest._

 _And it doesn't feel half bad._

…

 _Piper wakes with a start the next morning (recurrent dream, falling, flailing, crashing). It takes her a short while to register exactly where she is and that she's developed a crick in her neck from being squeezed into Alex Vause on the not so generously sized couch. She tries to wriggle free, so as not to disturb the brunette, but to no avail, as seconds later, Alex is rubbing sleep from her eyes._

" _Hey," she croaks, a hand pulling out her glasses from down the side of the couch, before placing them back on her face._

" _Hey," Piper replies sitting upright._

" _Sleep ok?"_

" _Not really, you?"_

" _Not really."_

 _They laugh in unison and the sound reverberates around the room eerily, hollow and lacking any really purpose, other than to fill any possibility of an awkward silence. After all, neither of them expected to be_ _ **here**_ _._

" _Guess we can safely say that a lumpy old couch isn't conducive to a good night's sleep huh? How's the hand?"_

 _Piper stares down at the heavily bandaged wound and shrugs, "Think I'll survive."_

" _Breakfast?" Alex offers_

 _Piper's eyes immediately flick to the tiny stove in the corner of the room._

" _Don't worry," Alex says, as if she's read her mind, "not here, there's a decent diner couple of blocks away, pancakes that literally melt in the mouth."_

 _Piper knows she should go home, that right about now her mother will discover her bed, still made and no sign of her daughter. The thought of Carol's rising panic fills the blonde with delight, although she knows it shouldn't._

 _ **Fuck it.**_

" _Sure," she smiles._

…

 _The wind is bitter cold as they make the short walk to the diner, icy fingers taking sharp nips at exposed flesh, making Piper immediately regret not grabbing a coat when she left her parents in an angry haze hours ago._

 _Cars whiz by, smattering them with last night's rainwater. "Jackass!" Alex yells at one particularly zealous SUV driver. By the time they arrive at the restaurant, teeth chattering, fingers numb, they greet the warmth like an embrace from an old friend and slide into a booth farthest away from the drafty entrance._

 _They each order a stack of pancakes (Piper's with blueberry syrup, Alex's with bacon). Alex likes the way Piper considers the menu so closely, long fingers lazily trailing each printed breakfast choice. "If you study for your exams like you do for your breakfast, you'll be golden," Alex teases._

 _Piper's cheeks immediately flush red, "There's nothing wrong with considering_ _ **all**_ _options," she replies, her eyes locking with Alex's._

" _Oh yeah?"_

" _Yes."_

" _So what's the verdict?"_

" _Nice," she replies, her tongue rolling deliciously around the word, "Looks tempting"_

 _And Alex is no longer sure she's talking about the menu (if she ever was) only that Piper Chapman might be the best thing she's ever laid eyes on._

 _They eat in a comfortable silence, each girl relaxing into the company of the other, prolonging each bite, stretching out the time a little farther, trying to make each second count. And Alex knows she's late for her meeting with Fahri (she'll take the heat later) and Piper is certain her mother will be sitting tight lipped and disappointed, glass of gin in hand (nothing new there)._

 _And the world drifts around them, silently, an awkward sort of irrelevance._

 _Piper talks about SATs, about Smith, about things that her eyes betray don't really matter to her._

 _Alex talks about Nichols, about gigs she's managed to sneak into, about busting out of "this place"._

 _And it's an odd sort of captivity they find themselves in, one that gives them a pleasant buzz, so much so that it's midday before they know it._

" _Fuck," Piper mutters when she realizes, "I should get going before my mother sends out a search party"_

" _And what would that consist of?"_

" _Cal and Danny mainly….maybe my dad, if he's not occupied with business."_

 _She says business like it's a dirty word and Alex guesses that in this instance, it probably is, because in a city as rotten as this, the men in suits have just as much blood on their hands as the likes of Fahri._

" _Sending out the big guns then huh?" Alex grins._

" _Something like that," her voice tails off as if she's lost in a train of thought and it's another couple of minutes before she speaks again. "Sorry, it's just my family...I'm never quite good enough for them I guess...well apart from Cal...he's more of a free spirit…well at least that's how he explained the joint that my mother found in his room the other day."_

 _Alex laughs, takes a sip of coffee, watches as Piper folds and unfolds a paper napkin. "Well you know what they say?"_

" _What?" Piper says, head resting on her hand._

" _You can't choose your family"_

" _Fuck them," she replies sitting up abruptly. "You wanna get high?"_

" _Piper Chapman," Alex says in mock disgust, but her smile is the only response Piper needs._

…

 _They're sitting, huddled together, backs pressed against a thick slab of gravestone. They pass the joint back and forth for a little while (Cal's contraband) ignoring the ferocity of the cold circling the graveyard, locked in a mellow sort of reverie._

" _It's kinda sad to think we'll all end up here at some point don't you think?" Piper says, gently resting her head on Alex's shoulder. The contact immediately makes Alex bristle, but in a good way, the best way in fact and she only hopes that it's not obvious._

" _Depends," she replies flatly_

" _On what?"_

 _Alex takes a final drag, turns to fully face Piper. Her eyes are wide, resplendent against the unholy hell hole of the rest of the world, her lips slightly parted, a light sheen of moisture so delicately inviting and she has to control every inch of her being, because she's never felt a more overwhelming desire to kiss someone._

" _Whether it's worth just surviving." The words leave her mouth in almost a whisper, as if saying it out loud will make it real, a sad indictment of her life so far. She shakes her head, as if she's physically trying to rid herself of the label…._

 _ **You're different**_ _…._

 _But Fahri's words aren't offering the comfort they sometimes do, not now…_

" _Is that what_ _ **you're**_ _doing?" Piper replies, "Surviving?"_

" _Sometimes," Alex replies._

" _Right now?"_

 _Alex smiles, "No. Not right now." And that_ _ **is**_ _a comfort, although she's got no idea why, after all, this girl is a relative stranger, or maybe she isn't….._

 _But it's 3pm and Piper insists she really had better leave, she has an assignment due first thing tomorrow morning. So there's no more time for evaluation, if that was even what she was doing._

 _Alex walks her to the bus stop and this time the silence isn't comfortable, it's thick with an odd sort of regret and longing and as Alex waves her off, beginning to feel the first signs of her buzz disappearing, she's thinking that not kissing Piper Chapman that afternoon is the biggest regret of the year so far. And in Alex's world, that really is saying something._

…

 _Carol is livid. Her lips are pulled thinner than usual, making her cheeks appear more hollow (if that was ever possible). Questions are fired at Piper, some expected (Who were you with? Why didn't you call? Don't you realize how much worry you've caused?). Others less so (did you notice anyone following you? have you seen you father since yesterday)._

 _All are met with the same stony silence._

 _And there's that familiar pounding in her skull, the need for some sort of release, to be anywhere but_ _ **here.**_ _And out of nowhere, Alex Vause's raspy laughter fills her brain, bringing with it a sort of palpable life, so much so that, before she realizes what she's doing, Carol is asking her what the hell she is grinning at._

" _Nothing. Nothing at all," comes Piper's response, before she trudges up to her bedroom. But Alex is far from nothing, in fact, Piper Chapman has never quite met anyone like her before and she's as certain as she can be, that she never will again._

…

 _Monday through to Wednesday passes without much excitement. Polly has almost become unbearable as Pete has just asked her to "go steady" and Piper can't remember the last time they had a conversation without him being mentioned._

 _And yet still, Alex is punctuating her thoughts, but she tries not to dwell on this, even though her very name causes a strange fire to spread through her gut._

" _Are you on something?" Polly asks one afternoon, pulling her into an empty classroom._

" _What the fuck Poll?!"_

" _I'm sorry, it's just that you seem so spaced out lately, like you're on a different planet or something."_

" _I wish," Piper mutters in response._

" _See what I mean?"_

 _Piper rolls her eyes, "I'm fine, quit being so dramatic, haven't you got a Pete to tend to?"_

" _Funny."_

" _I thought so."_

" _Fine asshole, I'll leave you alone, but can you at least_ _ **try**_ _to be a little less weird?"_

 _Piper flips her the bird._

" _I'm taking that as a yes," her friend replies, before exiting the room and making her way towards the lockers._

 _But in spite of her faults, Piper has to admit, her friend might have her point. But she has no idea what the solution is, only that meeting Alex Vause has left her in an odd sort of daze._

…

 _Thursday is different. Thursday is great. Because Alex turns up outside her school. She's smoking a cigarette, unabashed, seemingly unconcerned by the scathing looks that the likes of Jessica Wedge are shooting her and it makes Piper's heart leap straight to her throat when she first catches sight of the brunette. But she bites back the feeling as best as she can, re-adjusting the strap of the bag on her shoulder, pretending to find Polly's conversation far more interesting than it is (she's pretty sure she's still talking about Pete's new haircut)._

" _Hey," Alex says, greeting her as soon as Piper is outside the main gates._

" _Hey."_

 _Polly's eyes are darting from Alex to Piper and then back again with such speed that it actually makes Alex chuckle._

" _Something funny?" Polly snaps, aware that the source of Alex's amusement is her._

" _ **Something**_ _is…yeah" Alex replies smirking._

" _Al, why don't I meet you outside the park at the bottom of the road in ten?" Piper offers, keen to avoid any conflict._

 _Alex's eyes flick to Piper, "Sure, see you shortly." She tosses the cigarette butt into the distance and saunters off towards the designated meeting place._

" _Fucking asshole," Polly hisses "Who the hell was that?!"_

" _A friend."_

" _A friend?"_

" _Yes."_

" _Careful with that one," Polly says, clearly still smarting from the exchange, "she could be more than you bargained for."_

 _Piper doesn't have the heart to tell her, she's banking on it._

...

 **A/N** \- Updates will hopefully be a bit more regular in the future. Thanks for sticking with us. We can be found here (reverse-swing and imissedyourpatronage) or on tumblr (where we're orthodoxspin and shallowbanana).


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N** \- Hi all. Here's chapter 3 of our humble collaboration, as promised. Reviews are always appreciated... Enjoy!

...

For years, the rooftops of Gotham felt like they were the only place where Alex could find any sort of peace. Piper had dropped from her life as suddenly as she'd stumbled into it. Diane was fading away slowly and painfully in a hospice bed. It was a viciously cruel irony that the medical care had been funded by Piper before she'd left, inextricably linking her mother's situation with the vanished blonde.

When the weight of it all got to be too much, Alex would retreat into the cold Gotham night.

The streets of Gotham weren't exactly safe, and besides, everywhere she might have chosen to go reminded her of Piper. Places they'd gone to regularly, where they'd poured their hearts out to one another, where they'd fallen in love, where Alex had helped her through... what had happened. The rooftops on the other hand... there was nothing to tie them to Piper and they were generally blissfully free of intruders, especially in the dead of winter.

Learning how to navigate the city from ten stories up had worked to keep her distracted for awhile, but then Diane had finally succumbed and Alex's life had descended into a black hole for longer than she cared to admit...

After she came back from the brink, she'd gone back to the rooftops and had found a new calling there. They were part of her domain now, they allowed her freedom, gave her an escape... so it's just her luck that that's where she's finally gotten caught.

The rain is falling fast and hard, being driven sideways by the gusts of wind. There's so much that even the supposedly waterproof material her "fancy pajamas" are made out of can take, and she's starting to get soaked through, despite the fact that Piper is on top of her, a solid weight on her legs and a forearm across her throat (Alex is still wrapping her mind around the fact that Piper is the fucking Bat).

Piper's eyes are as hard and cold and as closed off as Alex had ever seen them. Piper could conceal a lot of things from a lot of people, but by the time she'd left, Alex could (or had thought she could) read her pretty well, no matter who she was trying to be or how she was trying to act. Now she can't tell what the hell's going on in the blonde's head, but the hard set of her mouth and the muscle Alex can see twitching in her jaw don't seem like good signs.

For her part, Alex isn't sure what the fuck she ought to be feeling. As of four hours ago she was still trying to work through the disappointment of seeing that Piper had become a vacuous alcoholic blonde drone, that her years abroad had done nothing but transform her into exactly what her parents had wanted her to be. She thought that maybe becoming the Bat (who had single handedly done more in a month to destroy Kubra's operations than the cops had in the years she'd been gone) was better... but it wasn't any easier to reconcile this Piper with the one she had known...

It was a hell of a lot to process in the space of ten minutes, and it was all tangled up with the fact that she'd just been caught with her hand in the damn cookie jar for the first time. She sure as shit didn't want to go to prison, but Bat-Piper had her dead to rights... She had to shove all of her conflicted feelings about Piper and who or what she was now concentrate on finding a way to keep herself out of jail.

She takes a stab at trying to move her arms, but Piper's got her pinned down pretty efficiently. There's a joke to be made here about compromising positions, but Alex isn't entirely sure it wouldn't get her punched in the face. Actually, given exactly how Piper has been taking care of business lately, and how close she came to knocking Alex out mere moments ago, Alex is confused as to why she isn't unconscious and trussed up for Gotham's finest yet. Instead Piper is just staring at her, letting water drip onto both of them, time seeming to slow as she contemplates Alex's face.

Before either of them can say a word, the door leading from inside the highrise to the roof bursts open and a half dozen gun toting thugs come running through. The bullets start flying, though not particularly accurately. Piper shifts her grip, grabbing Alex by the shoulders and somehow managing to slide forward and turn at the same time, all so fast that Alex can barely track what's happening.

All she knows is that one second she's on the ground, and the next, she's being shoved behind one of the heating units spaced at regular intervals across the roof (a bit harder than she thinks is strictly necessary, but she's willing to let that bit of pettiness go, at least until they've managed to survive this). Piper is now crouched at the corner, looking back towards the door. At some point she must have dropped a smoke grenade. Alex hadn't seen her do it, but she can see the spreading cloud of white, being quickly dissipated by the rain, and she can hear the men shouting and coughing.

Alex moves into a crouch, and for a moment she considers bolting. Piper is distracted, and the thugs are disoriented. The edge of the roof isn't that far away... but before she can move, Piper turns back towards her, locking eyes with her. There was a time when she would've done anything for those eyes, when she _had_ done anything for them. Of course, back then she'd also thought Piper would've done the same for her, and clearly that hadn't been the case...

"Those guys aren't cops," Piper says, interrupting her train of thought.

"Figured that one out all on your own, huh? And I thought the Bat was supposed to have some sort of magical fucking intuition."

"A bit rich coming from the petty thief I just caught..."

"There's nothing _petty_ about my thievery..." a burst of gunfire... it sounds like the thugs are getting their shit together. Alex hears something about fanning out, flanking them... they've seen Piper, they know who they're dealing with and Alex can hear the tension in their voices. "Who are they?"

Piper glares at her, her gaze hard. Alex feels her temper rising. Seriously? Playing secrets _now_...? "They're shooting at _me_ too..." she snaps.

"They're Kubra's guys," Piper growls, her voice pitching down suddenly, evidently remembering she has to be gruff and serious.

Alex feels a thrill of raw fear crawl up her spine. She's stayed off Kubra's radar for four years and for very good reason. She doesn't need this shit now, "What the hell are Kubra's guys doing here?"

Piper narrows her eyes, even as Alex can see her hand hovering over one of the pouches in that belt of hers, "You don't know?"

Alex gives her a look.

Piper grimaces. She opens her mouth to answer, but then her eyes flick to a point behind Alex, and with that uncanny speed, she whips her hand up from her belt and hurls something in Alex's direction. Alex looks back just in time to see a heavy black object hit a guy in the head. He groans and collapses. "Priorities," she grates out.

"We could just get the fuck out of here... there's only half a dozen of them..."

They hear more gravel crunching, more men streaming onto the roof. Well _shit_...

"More like a dozen and a half now..." Piper frowns, "And they all need to be in prison..."

"Seriously? You think that..."

Piper pulls open another pouch, "Might want to avert your eyes."

She takes a small object from the pouch and rolls it out towards the door, where the men are concentrated. Alex closes her eyes and looks away just as the flash grenade goes off. When she looks up again, Piper is gone, and she can hear punches and kicks and profuse swearing.

Again she considers bailing, but then a bullet goes sailing past her from behind. She spins around and growls a curse as she sees three of the men have flanked around and are advancing on her... one of whom she knows.

Holding out hope that she might be able to talk her way out of being on Kubra's shit list, she says, "Oh hey there Ahmad..."

Ahmad ignores her greeting and keeps his gun trained on her as he says to the others, "He's going to want this one alive if possible..." he narrows his eyes, "Kubra warned you what would happen if you crossed his path again..."

"I didn't know it was _his_ path I was crossing! I don't even know what the fuck is going on here..."

"He said he did not want to see you again..."

"And I've stayed out of his way for years... I paid my debt I..."

"You can discuss that with him..."

Ahmad begins advancing towards her slowly, the other men following behind. Alex moves into a defensive stance. She knows she can't let herself be taken. She knows Kubra will never understand... not that beating the shit out of these guys is much safer, but at least she's got options if she's free...

Cursing her luck, she charges towards Ahmad, taking him by surprise. He gets a shot off that grazes her arm. Her adrenaline is up and she barely feels it, but she knows it'll probably hurt like a bitch later. She slams into his chest at full speed with her uninjured shoulder. He's a solid guy, so he doesn't fall, but it staggers him, jarring the gun loose. And luckily his two friends were close enough behind that he slams into one of them. That guy actually does fall down, his head smacking into the corner of the heating unit. He doesn't move again.

Alex knows Ahmad's other backup guy must be recovering from the shock of her charge. Almost the second she thinks it, she hears the gravel behind her crunch. She spins around while Ahmad is still recovering from the blow, and lashes out with a vicious roundhouse kick. It catches the third guy solidly in the chest and he goes down hard. Alex delivers a second hard kick to the side of his head and he goes still... just as Ahmad grabs her from behind, his meaty forearm solidly around her neck, applying wicked pressure as his other arm goes around her middle, grunting as he lifts her off the ground and then leans back, both of them falling heavily onto the roof, Ahmad is large enough to take the impact with barely a grunt.

She's on top of him now, back to front. He's shifted his grip into a sleeper hold, right arm curled around her neck apply pressure, left bracing it. Alex panics as she feels her air being cut off, her vision going blurry around the edges. The rain is making her feel like she's drowning... every time she opens her mouth she sucks in more water than air... She follows her instincts and tries to claw at his arms and kick her legs to free herself, but he's not letting up. She know he's done this before, and she knows she was an idiot for turning her back to him.

 _Calm **down** goddamit_... she thinks to herself, trying to make her brain work again even as she feels it shutting down. _You're_ ** _armed_** _you dumbass..._

Her right arm goes to her thigh, scrabbling around desperately until she finds what she's looking for. She pulls a nasty looking throwing knife from a holster concealed there and stabs it into his right arm.

Ahmad grunts a curse. He doesn't let her go, but he loosens up his grip enough that she can pull in a gasping breath. Before he can react properly, she plunges the knife in again even harder. This time he bellows and his left arm withdraws, flailing towards the knife. Now that the grip isn't iron, Alex has enough room to move and she slams her left elbow back, hitting Ahmad in the midsection.

She uses the momentum from this move to roll off him. She's gasping for air, coughing, on her hands and knees, but Ahmad is trying to get to his feet, his right arm bleeding profusely, the rain mixing with the blood as it drips off his arm in sheets. She scrambles over to him before he can fully recover and punches him hard in the face. It's not enough to knock him out, but it puts him flat on his back. She throws herself forward, landing on him with one knee on his left forearm and another on his chest. She grabs his right arm, holds it down and then slams the knife through the palm of his hand, effectively pinning him to the roof.

Ignoring his bellows of pain, she staggers to her feet, she starts back towards where she'd left Piper. She feels light headed and sluggish, the air still struggling into her lungs... She finds the blonde is in the process of taking care of what appears to be the last two thugs. The others are either unconscious or wishing they were, rolling around groaning. Watching her now, Alex can't quite believe she managed to escape their fight unscathed. Piper seems to have some sort of uncanny sixth sense, moving to dodge blows almost before her opponents (both taller and broader than her) even know they're going to throw them. The rain and wind have both intensified, but it doesn't seem to be slowing Piper down, she's sliding through the water like she can't even feel it...

Lightning splits the sky, followed almost immediately by an tremendous crack of thunder. It doesn't seem to affect Piper or the thugs she's taking care of, but Alex is startled out of her trance, and in the flash sees one of Kubra's boys has managed to raise his gun (in spite of what looks like a hell of a black eye and a twisted and broken right arm) and is pointing it towards Piper, who chooses that moment to put down one of the thugs, leaving the man with the broken arm an unimpeded line of fire.

Alex takes off at a dead run, kicking the man in the side of the head just as he's about to pull the trigger, altering his aim. He ends up hitting the other thug Piper is fighting square in the leg and he goes down like a sack of potatoes.

Piper delivers a final elbow to the head of the last thug and then turns to look at Alex. Their eyes meet again and Piper looks like she's considering whether or not to take a run at her. This goes on for what seems like an eternity but is probably closer to thirty seconds before they hear the distant wail of police sirens. Alex frowns. She has so many questions... but she can't go to jail, and she's pretty sure Piper would be happy to put her there...

She turns and sprints towards the edge of the roof, propelling herself off of it before hooking on to the one opposite... trying not to think too hard about the fact that if Piper had wanted to stop her, she very well could have...

...

Piper watches Alex disappear over the edge of the roof and her brow furrows. Seeing the brunette had thrown her badly, and not just because she'd been attempting to rob the home of one of Kubra's attorneys. She'd had spent years honing her mind and body in preparation to do what she needed to do to when she returned to Gotham, to do what no one in the city's festering wound of a DA's office or police force could. Kubra Balik was a plague, a disease that kept Gotham anchored firmly in the dirt and grime and corruption that had killed her brother. Removing him from the equation wouldn't solve everything, but it would at least give the decent cops and the new, still relatively untouched DA a fighting chance.

Part of her training had been mental conditioning that was supposed to help her process fear, to calm herself and not react to it. She could face a dozen armed men without batting an eyelid but when she'd laid eyes on Alex... for a split second she had found herself paralyzed, the memories she had tried to block out for years had all come flooding back into her brain. It wasn't constructive or helpful to the mission to dwell on things like that... on what she had left behind and how she had done it... but one look at the brunette and it felt like she was fifteen again and no time had passed...

She hadn't been able to focus for the rest of the night. One of the thugs she'd been fighting had nearly clipped her... would have if not for Alex's timely intervention. It's not a comfort to know that Alex can still affect her like this, especially since Alex is clearly still the type of person she's sworn to clear out of Gotham...

She shakes her head hard, once and then glances around at the groaning men at her feet. Even distracted she'd made short work of them. From the sound of things, the police are almost here and she can't be around when they arrive. The men aren't going anywhere.

She'll think about Alex later...

...

Piper considers Alex the whole ride home, her scowl getting deeper and deeper as she does. By the time she pulls into the tunnel leading to the cave, her thoughts have spiraled into extremely dark territory.

She gets an idea of what her face must look like when she hops off the bike, rips off her helmet and throws it at Polly, who is leaning against the hospital bed they've had installed about ten feet from garage. Their whole operation is relatively new, the cave in various states of half built disarray, but one of the very first things they'd realized is that having the medical bay close enough to stagger to from the garage was key. Claudette had a bad back and Polly hadn't appreciated having to manhandle Piper to the room when it had been three times as far away.

Polly has opened her mouth to say something cutting about Piper's comm unit shorting out (again) or the fact that she hadn't exactly managed to stay stealthy (again), but she shuts it fast when she gets a good look at her friend's glowering face. She remembers when she first met Piper in elementary school, before she'd figured out what her parents were and started roaming the streets, before Cal had been killed. The girl had always had a smile on her face, it was like a perpetual thing, a sunny grin that lifted the mood of everyone around her. That smile had stopped coming so frequently as time went on, but Polly still thought of it, especially at times like this, and she resented the world for having made her this way.

Piper storms over to the table, yanking off the cape one handed and pulling the well concealed fasteners on the damn suit's heavily reinforced top. by the time she takes a seat, she's stripped down to her sports bra and Polly can see a gunshot wound to the left shoulder. The blonde continues glowering straight ahead as Polly sighs and examines her arm. Aside from that she can see nothing more than a few cuts and bruises that Piper will be able to take care of herself.

After she's done with her initial inspection, Polly glances at Piper and risks a question, "What happened, Pipes?"

Piper doesn't reply, her eyes are focused on a point on the far wall of the cave where the bats that still live here (contributing to the lovely smell and what Polly considers highly unsanitary conditions) are now clustered after being shooed out of the main chamber.

"Pipes..."

More silence. Polly has begun restricting herself to two tries to get Piper to speak to her. When the woman's not in the mood to talk, she just won't, which is another contrast to the Piper she first met. That girl couldn't shut up. Just when Polly has resigned herself to not knowing what the hell happened until Claudette comes down and prods the blonde until she speaks, Piper says, "I saw Alex."

Polly is so stunned she nearly drops the syringe full of local anesthetic she's about to inject, "What?"

"Alex was going through the safe when I got there."

"Was she... was it... Supercunt was there?"

Piper glares at her. So apparently that nickname is still off the table. Not that she's had to use it much. Piper never talks about Alex Vause. She barely talked about her before she left when she was running all over hell and gone doing God knows what with her. Well at least she knows why Piper looks so pissed.

She tries again, "Did Su... Alex know... about Mindy?"

"No. I don't think so. I think she was just..." a bitter laugh, "...engaging in some plain old cat burglary. Some things never change."

"And what happened to her?"

"She got away."

Polly injects the local and frowns, "Got away?"

"I fought of a dozen guys single handed. She... saved my life... then she left."

"You let her leave?"

Piper's glare intensifies. Polly sighs, "Right, right. The Bat doesn't _let_ anyone do anything..." she picks up the scalpel and doesn't bother telling her friend this will hurt, she knows about pain. Piper doesn't say anything more, so Polly just figures she's settled into full on brooding. "Good talk," she mutters, frowning as she concentrates on what she's doing.

She wonders about it, Piper letting Alex go when she would've gone after anyone else, no matter how tired she was or whether the person she was after might have saved her life. The Bat wasn't usually all that concerned with extenuating circumstances... She hopes Piper knows what she's doing...

...

Alex doesn't go straight home. She doesn't want to face Nicky and the questions that she'll ask when she figures out Alex is empty handed. She doesn't want to have to discuss what she feels with someone else when she can barely figure it out herself. Somehow, she ends up on the outskirts of the city, crouched on the hill behind the abandoned Wal-Mart, a place she hadn't even come near for years because of how strongly it reminded her of Piper.

The worst of the storm has passed, and the rain has tapered off to a light drizzle. Her clothes are damp, soaked almost all the way through. It's just cool enough that she begins to shiver as soon as she sits still. The adrenaline from the fight is fading, and her brain feels like it's been put through a blender and hastily reassembled. Even as her body wants nothing but to collapse, her mind is racing, and she can't pin down any one thought for longer than a second.

There's too much to take in. Piper is running around dressed like a damned Bat, taking out a dozen men in the time it took Alex to barely survive three... but she's also running around with Bitsy and Betsy and Snookums pretending to be a brainless bimbo, allowing the papers to portray her as an airhead who lets her CFO run her father's company while she sleeps off hangovers and fucks a different celebrity every night. Both personas seem ironclad, and neither of them appeared to have much in common with the girl who'd shredded her heart.

On top of that, she still had no idea why Kubra's guys had appeared on the roof, how they'd known where she and Piper would be... _why_ they would even give a shit. Obviously the Bat had been fucking with Kubra's operations, but Alex had nothing to do with that... The thought of being back in Kubra's sights made her sick to her stomach...

After about an hour, the chill finally penetrates into her bones and her thoughts have been flitting around like so many terrified butterflies, going around and around until she knows there's no point in thinking about it anymore. It's getting close to three in the morning. Maybe if she sleeps it'll all make sense when she wakes up. She scrambles to her feet, tries to shake the feeling back into her limbs and heads towards home.

All she's thinking about when she reaches her fourth story fire escape is a warm drink and her bed, possibly with a hot bath thrown in... so she doesn't notice that the lights are all off and the apartment is deadly still when she opens the window and crawls in.

She reaches up to pull off her hood and goggles when a lamp in the corner turns on and a terrifyingly familiar voice says, "Well, this makes things awfully convenient..." Her head whips up and she sees Aydin...

" _Jesus_!" she exclaims.

He's smiling at her, friendly, casual, a toothpick perched in one corner of his mouth. "I came to pay you a visit, Vause... just like Kubra promised I would if you ever fucked around in his business again..."

"I promised I would stay out of his way and I have!"

"Well you did... I mean you were doing so well, and then you had to go and fuck it all up..."

"Aydin, if I interfered it wasn't intentional..."

Aydin didn't look armed, but Alex knew that didn't make him any less dangerous. When Kubra wanted to send a real message, he'd have Aydin fuck people up with his bare hands... He shrugs, telling her just how little he cares about her intentions.

"You're saving me a lot of trouble finding you. I thought I might have to actually make some effort after your little friend wouldn't tell me anything..."

Alex feels her blood turn to ice. "...what...?"

"The girl with the hair. Feisty thing. Had quite an impressive vocabulary, and the kind of loyalty you don't see a lot in this world... everyone needs a friend like that, I think. You'll be hard pressed to find another one..."

"What did you do..."

Aydin gives her a look. It was a stupid question and they both knew it. Aydin had done what he always did.

For a moment, she loses all power of rational thought. She feels as though she's been blinded, an image of Nicky broken and battered and drowning in a pool of her own blood flashing behind her eyes... The weight of it hits Alex in the center of her chest, all feeling draining from her limbs as though she's been paralyzed. She feels like she can't breathe, like Ahmad is choking her out again, the rain flooding down her throat...

He shakes his head, "Ah well... don't look like that Vause," he says, shifting his toothpick around to the other side of his mouth as he cracks his knuckles, "You won't have to be sad about it much longer..."

Before Aydin can advance a step, the front door crashes open and two men burst in, guns drawn. "Nichols!?" bellows a familiar voice. Vasily. Aydin's smile doesn't waver and his gaze doesn't leave Alex as he says, "Your lucky day... see you around Vause..."

By the time Vasily and his friend get down the short hallway and into main room, Aydin has disappeared back towards the bedrooms. Alex runs after him, not to catch him, but to find Nicky.

She doesn't have to go far. Nicky is just inside the entrance to her bedroom, tied to a chair, so still Alex is certain she's dead until she feels her neck... the pulse is weak and slow. Aydin has clearly done his worst to her. Alex gets the distinct impression she interrupted him before he could truly finish, but that's barely a comfort considering that Nicky's face is a wreck, and every bit of her exposed skin is covered in cuts and bruises.

Alex hears Vasily in the hall behind her. His friend (she recognizes him as Konstantin) goes to the window, looking to pursue Aydin, but then turns and shakes his head. Alex is crouched next to Nicky and wants to touch her, to untie her from the chair but is terrified of making it worse. Her heart is beating hard, her blood rushing into her ears. It isn't until Vasily put his beefy hand on her shoulder that she realizes he's been trying to speak to her.

She looks up at him, and sees he's got his phone to his ear. He nods as he says, " _Da_. I'll tell her..." He disconnects the call and steps into the hallway, gesturing with his head for Alex to follow. Reluctantly, Alex stands, her legs weak, and follows him out of the room.

"You need to go."

"What? No. I'm not..."

"He only left here because he was alone, you understand? He will come back with more. To find you. To finish..." his eyes dart to Nicky and away quickly, a shadow passing over his face... Alex realizes he may be just as upset as she is. Vasily has known Nicky for most of her life, "... you cannot stay."

"I'm not leaving her..."

"Anywhere you are, they will come," he says, his voice isn't entirely unsympathetic, but it's also unyielding. The implication is clear: _you're a danger to Nicky... to anyone near you..._

Alex stares down at the hall rug that Nicky had filched from one of her mother's barely used multimillion dollar condos. Her fists clench and unclench reflexively, making the gunshot graze on her right arm ache. She knows he's right, but God she hates it... almost as much as she hates herself... because she _knows_ she's responsible for this.

After a long moment she nods tightly and turns without a word, going to her room to gather what she can fit into her pack. When she emerges, she can hear commotion by the door. Konstantin admitting someone else...

Alex heads towards the window she entered through and when she looks back she sees Red, standing in the entryway, staring at her. There's raw emotion on her face, the kind that the old Russian usually keeps locked up tight. The force of the grief and anger in even more intense than Alex had feared it would be, and she knows most of it is justifiably aimed towards her. The moment passes quickly and Red hurries towards the bedrooms. A man Alex recognizes as the Family doctor trails after her.

Vasily stays standing in the hallway, his eyes on Alex until she slips through the window and disappears into the night.


End file.
